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Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

I have been told that I can configure KDE on my new SUSE system by using XFConfig/xorg.config, so that I can use all four buttons on my trackball. Unfortunately, the source of this suggestion offered no hint of how to do this, or even where to find this file (for which I have searched unsuccessfully).

ah...I had exactly the same issue with Slackware 10.1 not recognizing my scrollwheel. After a *lot* of searching the web, I found out I needed to add a couple lines to my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:

Right after the line:
option "Device" "/dev/mouse"

I put:
option "Buttons" "5"
option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

and the tutorial I found also says (if my scribbled notes are correct):

For a 7-button mouse, you say,

option "Buttons" "7"
option "ZAxisMapping" "6 7"

and in addition for 7-button mice, you have to create a file called .Xmodmap in /etc/X11/xinit/
which just says:

pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 4 5

Note the order of these numbers!

Hope this helps, but I don't know if Xorg on Slackware works the same as on Suse. If not, try searching some more using some of the terms I've presented here - xorg is still young compared to XF86Config, it'll be some time before the kinks are worked out!

PS Geez, I've been using Emacs so much tonight, I just tried to post this by hitting Ctrl-X Ctrl-S !

Originally posted by Hosiah ah...I had exactly the same issue with Slackware 10.1 not recognizing my scrollwheel. After a *lot* of searching the web, I found out I needed to add a couple lines to my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:

Right after the line:
option "Device" "/dev/mouse"

I put:
option "Buttons" "5"
option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

and the tutorial I found also says (if my scribbled notes are correct):

For a 7-button mouse, you say,

option "Buttons" "7"
option "ZAxisMapping" "6 7"

and in addition for 7-button mice, you have to create a file called .Xmodmap in /etc/X11/xinit/
which just says:

pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 4 5

Note the order of these numbers!

Hope this helps, but I don't know if Xorg on Slackware works the same as on Suse. If not, try searching some more using some of the terms I've presented here - xorg is still young compared to XF86Config, it'll be some time before the kinks are worked out!

PS Geez, I've been using Emacs so much tonight, I just tried to post this by hitting Ctrl-X Ctrl-S !

Many thanks for your reply, much more explicit and therefore more helpful than the suggestion I asked about.

Originally posted by Hosiah ah...I had exactly the same issue with Slackware 10.1 not recognizing my scrollwheel. After a *lot* of searching the web, I found out I needed to add a couple lines to my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:!

What I've learned since I read your reply is that I'm further in the dark than I had thought. Let us count the ways:

1) I had mentioned that I had been told to modify a file called XF86Config/xorg.conf. Your reply puts xorg.conf in a different directory, /etc/X11. What is the connection between these two directories, and how should a more experienced user know to connect the two? The sadly deficient book tht the DVD came in mentions XF86Config enthusiastically, but fails to say anything useful about finding it.

2) By any name at all, I have not been able to locate thies xorg.conf file, although I have devoted half a day to the search. Where is the bloody thing?

3) In the short time I have been using SUSE, I have had no difficulty in switching from my home directory to /root. Today, in the process of looking for the elusive xorg.conf file, I went through the same moves, but /root came up in the form of a Full Screen YaST, which is not what I had in mind. I cannot explain the change. And when I close YaST in the hope of being able to start a Terminal, that is the end of /root, and I am back to my own home directory. Why has this instability appeared, and what can I do to get a normal /root screeen back?

Originally posted by hanasi 2) By any name at all, I have not been able to locate thies xorg.conf file, although I have devoted half a day to the search. Where is the bloody thing?

I can't answer your other questions, but you could open a terminal and type "locate xorg.conf" (without the quotes). If it comes back with nothing, the file doesn't exist on your system. You could do a "locate XF86Config" too. Remember, filenames are case-sensitive.

Yeah, but be sure to do "updatedb" first. For which you must run as root. (or su)

Unfortunately, I couldn't tell you where Suse keeps it's files! That's one distro I've never tried, nor any dirivative thereof.

X11, X11R6, XF86.....these are all related to the "X" windows manager, the de facto standard throughout the Unix/Linux world, and I think even BSD. "X" is named after it's predecessor, "W" which stood for "window manager"! It was released (and/or it escaped) from MIT labs. Even Linux fanatics make fun of the system (fortune cookie files usually have a slew of jokes about X). X is actually just a system of graphics-device function calls, the next worst thing to doing it yourself in a C program using a VGA library. The idea is so we can build custom-designed window managers on top of it, hence the slew of desktop environments ranging from TWM to Blackbox/Fluxbox (my current fave!!!) to KDE. The part that backfires is that, since X gives you the freedom to come up with your own method to interact with it, every distro (and sometimes every release of every distro) cheerfully invents it's own unique, wacky method and leaves you to guess what it is!

Originally posted by Hosiah Yeah, but be sure to do "updatedb" first. For which you must run as root. (or su)

Unfortunately, I couldn't tell you where Suse keeps it's files! That's one distro I've never tried, nor any derivative thereof.

I'll try to remember that when I am able to run as root. I have found no way to stop YaST without blowing the root user off. Also, the root user has forgotten the left-handed mouse configuration that I set.

Not knowing that I had to updatedb first, I tried to use "locate" to find this file. The reaction of SUSE was: "bash: locate: Cannot find command locate"

I interpret this as meaning that bash is indeed installed, which I remember doing, and that it is telling me that it doesn't know what "locate" is. How can this be, and what can I do about it?

the Suse/Novell forum on this site. Disabled root and not having locate installed, you need some more knowledgeble bailing out! On some systems, you'd say "slocate", but I have no idea what on Earth's going on with your situation.

I'm starting to become glad I never tried Suse! It sounds uncooperative.

I'm not sure how SuSe's package management works, but you need to have the GNU Findutils package installed to use locate. I would have thought it'd be installed automatically though, like Coreutils :/. Does the "updatedb" command work? If so, that should mean that Findutils is installed because updatedb is part of that package.

I'm pretty sure Suse v9.2 uses XF86Config, which should be found in the /etc/X11 directory. You will want to edit it to add the 'ZAxisMapping' line if it does not already exist. The comments Hosiah posted should work. Good luck with it; post back if you run into problems -- J.W.

Originally posted by J.W. I'm pretty sure Suse v9.2 uses XF86Config, which should be found in the /etc/X11 directory. You will want to edit it to add the 'ZAxisMapping' line if it does not already exist. The comments Hosiah posted should work. Good luck with it; post back if you run into problems -- J.W.

You can bet on it.

But at the moment, the major problem is the matter of YaST coming up in the root session, hogging it with a Full Screen display, and forgetting/ignoring the root configuration that I had previously set.

Originally posted by Hosiah ah...I had exactly the same issue with Slackware 10.1 not recognizing my scrollwheel. After a *lot* of searching the web, I found out I needed to add a couple lines to my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:

Right after the line:
option "Device" "/dev/mouse"

I put:
option "Buttons" "5"
option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

and the tutorial I found also says (if my scribbled notes are correct):

For a 7-button mouse, you say,

option "Buttons" "7"
option "ZAxisMapping" "6 7"

and in addition for 7-button mice, you have to create a file called .Xmodmap in /etc/X11/xinit/
which just says:

pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 4 5

Note the order of these numbers!

Hope this helps, but I don't know if Xorg on Slackware works the same as on Suse. If not, try searching some more using some of the terms I've presented here - xorg is still young compared to XF86Config, it'll be some time before the kinks are worked out!

PS Geez, I've been using Emacs so much tonight, I just tried to post this by hitting Ctrl-X Ctrl-S !

I've succeeded in finding the configuration file, and (my face is red) have found that the lines you suggest adding are already present. This never occured to me. I have two questions:

1) As in your example above, the number of buttons is given as 5. Why, for a 4-button trackball?

2) Now that I see that the trackball has been identified properly, even to all its buttons, how do I go about assigning functions to the two "extra" buttons?